Direction lock for angle plug

ABSTRACT

An angle cap having power blades extending generally at right angles to a power supply cable is provided with a means for disposing the cable at a number of radial angles relative to the blade orientation. Cooperation between the cover of the cap and the blade housing permits angular positioning of the blades relative to the cable so that once the blades are inserted in a stationary wall receptacle the cable will be positioned to lie in a preselected downward or sideward or upward orientation. The cooperating angular indexing means includes an integrally formed collar of the cover and integrally formed post of the blade housing.

United States Patent [191 Sheldon Feb. 27, 1973 [54] DIRECTION LOCK FORANGLE PLUG [75] Inventor: Luther M. Sheldon, Cranston, R1.

[73] Assignee: General Electric Company [22] Filed: July 29, 1971 [21]Appl. No.: 167,390

[52] US. Cl ..339/107, 339/196 A [51] Int. Cl. ..H0lr 13/58 [58] Fieldof Search ..339/l03, 107, 99, 210, 202, 339/245, 196; 16/121; 248/1882;292/350; 15l/4l.73; 287/53 SS, 53 H Primary Examiner-Richard E. MooreAttorney-Paul E. Rochford et a1.

[57] ABSTRACT An angle cap having power blades. extending generally atright angles to a power supply cable is provided with a means fordisposing the cable at a number of radial angles relative to the bladeorientation. Cooperation between the cover of the cap and the bladehousing permits angular positioning of the blades relative to the cableso that once the blades are inserted in a stationary wall receptacle thecable will be positioned to lie in a preselected downward or sideward orupward orientation. The cooperating angular indexing means includes anintegrally formed collar of the cover and integrally formed post of theblade housing.

1 Claim, 10 Drawing Figures PAIENImFEamls-za I sum 2 or 2 F'IGQDIRECTION LOCK FOR ANGLE PLUG This invention relates to electrical capsor plugs which have the blades extending from the cap generally at rightangles to the direction of extension of the cord or cable which carriespower from the plug. More particularly it relates to means for orientingthe cable at various angles radially from the cap relative to theposition of the blades where the blades are inserted in a wallreceptacle having a fixed position for the blades.

When a heavy duty cap is used in a wall receptacle the position of theblades in the receptacle is determined of course by the orientation ofthe blade receiving slots in the receptacle. While the cable extendingfrom the cap is generally at right angles to the blades, the cable canlie at any angle of the 360 around the receptacle represented by a flatwall in which the receptacle is fixedly mounted.

It is desirable to be able to orient the cord along the wall in apre-selected direction either directly downward or horizontal to thefloor or directly upward or at some intermediate angle depending on thelocation of the apparatus to which power is to be fed or what use is tobe made of the powered cable.

An angle cap or plug having limited indexing capability is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,335,395.

Further, use of the angled cap is desirable as it conserves space andavoids a tangle of cables sticking directly out of a gang of wallreceptacles thereby improving safety in use of caps and attached cables.

It is accordingly one object of the present invention to provide anangle cap having a cord clamp positionable at a plurality of angularorientations relative to blade orientation.

screw means extending through said collarand post for securing saidcover to said base and a lower cable clamp member movable by mountingscrews into cable compressing relation with said upper clamps.

The manner in which the present invention may best be carried intoeffect may be best described with reference to the accompanying drawingsin which:

FIG 1 is a top plan view of the angle cap of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side elevation of the cap of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a bottom plan view of the cap of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is an end elevation of the cap of FIG. 1

FIG. 5 is an exploded view of the cap as seen inFIG.

' 4 omitting a lower cable clamp.

FIG. 6 is a bottom view as seen in FIG. 3 of the clamp omitted from FIG.5.

FIG. 7 is an internal view of the cover of the cap as seen in FIG. 3 butwith the cable clamp and insulation body absent.

FIG. 8 is a top plan view of the insulating body showing the parts whichmesh with parts on the inside of the cover of FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is an exploded vertical section of the cap as seen in FIG. 2 inside elevation.

Another object is to provide an angle cap having a high degree ofreliability in angularorientation of the cord clamp thereof.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an angle caphaving versatility of orientation of the cord clamp at low cost.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be in part apparentand in part pointed out in the description which follows.

In one of its broader aspects the objects of the present invention maybe achieved by an angle cap havmg an insulating housing,

a set of power contact blades having blade ends and wire clamp ends,

the wire clamp ends being mounted in said housing and the blade endsextending from said housing,

a post formed integrally with said housing and extending centrally fromthe face of said housing in :a direction opposite to the direction ofblade extension,

said post having splines axially extending along the length thereof andgrooves radially extending at the base thereof,

an insulating cover having a side opening, said cover having an upperportion of a cord clamp extending radially from above the side openingof said cover and formed integrally therewith,

an internal collar depending centrally from the inner top surface ofsaid cover,

said collar having internal splines extending longitudinally thereof andhaving radially extending grooves formed in the end of said collar,

FIG. 10 is an alternative form of the cap of the present invention.

Referring now first to FIG. 1 there is seen the top of a cover 12 of acap including a generally circular main portion 14 and an outwardlyextending or visor portion 16. A central screw 18 serves to position andhold a blade housing, not seen, in the cover and screws 20 urge a cableclamp into compressing relation to a cable disposed between its upperand lower jaws.

Referring next to FIG. 2 the cover as seen in FIG. 1 is seen in sideelevation. The cover 12 is seen to have side ribs 22 a top main portion14 and visor portion 16. Grounding blade 24 and power blade 26 extendsout from blade housing not seen. Screw member 20 extends through thevisor 16 and engages the threaded portion of lower clamp 28 of theopposed clamp jaws 16 and 28.

Referring next to FIGS. 3, 4, and 5 the relation of several parts of thedevice of the present invention is brought out. In FIG. 3 blades 24 and26 are seen in end view projecting from theface 30 or the .cap. Rivets32 extend through body 30 and hold the body parts securely including theface plate 31. It is evident that with the blades and slots of wallreceptacles in the position shown in FIG. 3 the cord clamp extendsdirectly downward. However, it may be desirable to have the cord extendto either side or upward or at some intermediateangle.

The manner in which this may be achieved is made evident with referenceto FIG. 5 in which an exploded view ofthe cap is given with cap orientedas seen .in FIG. 4 but with the lower clamp jaw 28 omitted. As seen thecap has a side wall cable opening 36 extending through the wall of themain portion 12 of the cover and through a portionof visor 16 to formthe upper memberof a cable clamp. Seen through opening 36 ina dependingcollar 40, centrally located within main portion 14 of cap 12. Thecollar 40 is provided with depending teeth 42 which mesh with the teeth44 formed integrally with the upper surface of housing 46 of insulatingbody 50. The insulating body 50 is in some respects similar to structuretaught in U. S. Pat. No. 3,461,417 issued Aug. 12, 1969 and assigned tothe same assignee as this application.

The sets of teeth 42 and 44 are quite distinct from any prior structure.They are really radially extending ribs extending out from a set ofmatching splines 52 and 54 on the inside and outside respectively ofcollar 40 and post 60. The combination of teeth and splines are alsoquite distinct from any prior structure.

As seen in FIGS. 7 and 8 there are twelve splines and twelve teeth ineach set on both post 60 and collar 40. This permits the cap to be setat any of twelve preselected positions. Or to put it another way, once acable clamp direction has been selected, this permits the blades to beset in any of a plurality of incremental angular orientations.

Whichever is considered to be the primary choice of orientation, the netresult is that there are 12 positions in which the cable clamp can beset relative to the blade orientation.

Further it is evident that the indexing of the clamp and cover about theblade holding body is accomplished with adjustment of a single screw andthat the indexing is accordingly readily done. This greatly facilitatesselection of and adjustment to the direction in which the cord extendsfrom the cap.

The cable is held between jaws 17 and 19 of the clamp halves 16 and 28.The outer sheath of a cable is held between these jaws while the innerend is stripped so that the individual insulated wires of the cable maybe extended to the individual wire clamps such as 25 of FIG. 9 and 27 ofFIG. 5. The individual wire ends are first stripped and the strippedwire ends inserted through wire entry ports 23 into contact with thewire clamps.

One feature of the structure of the present invention concerns theinterlocking of the spline and tooth surfaces of the integrally formedpost 60 with the spline and tooth surfaces of the integrally formeddepending collar 40. The screw 18 is used to urge the two matching setsof surfaces into engagement after the angle of cord clamp orientation isselected by starting the post and collar union by sliding the twotogether at one of the 12 angles at which they can be set. The metalscrew is completely sheathed within the housing as the integral post andcollar are themselves formed of the insulating material of the housing.The front face piece 31 is held to the insulating housing body 33 asbest seen in FIG. 9 by rivets 35.

The lower clamp member 28 is provided with a curved clamping surfacewhich contains a slot 19 for compressive gripping of a pliable outerinsulation of a cable matching the slot 17 in the clamping surface ofupper clamp 19.

In addition two threaded screw holes 29 provide the means by which screwpressure is developed in effecting a strong clamping grip on a cable.

Further the lower clamp member has a short sector of arcuate wall 39which nests in a supporting keyway 41, 43 as more fully described incopending application Ser. No. 167,389 filed July 29, 1971 and assignedto the same assignee as this application.

FIG. 10 illustrates an alternative angular indexing control means.Pursuant to this scheme splines 154 are formed at regular spacingsaround body 131 and matching grooves 155 are formed in the inner surfaceof cover 122. As shown the seven splines and grooves make sevenalternative indexing orientations of cable clamp 128 feasible. Use ofadditional regularly spaced splines and grooves increases the number oforientations at which the cord clamp can be set relative to the body.

What is claimed is:

1. An angle cap comprising a generally circular insulating housing,

power contacts having a wire clamp end and a power blade end,

said wire clamp ends being supported in said housing and said bladesextending through a face thereof,

a cover enclosing portions of said housing other than the face thereofthrough which the blades extend,

a side opening in said cover and a visor shaped upper clamp over saidopening on said housing,

a closure covering said side opening including a side wall section andan outwardly extending lower clamp member,

a post formed integrally with and rising from the rear surface of saidinsulating housing, said post having laterally extending externalsplines along the length thereof and radially extending ribs at the basethereof and having an internal threaded screw hole,

a collar formed integrally with and depending centrally from theinternal surface of the cover, said collar having internallongitudinally extending splines along the internal surface thereof andradially extending ribs at the lower end thereof, conforming to the ribsand splines of said post,

said cover having a central screw opening providing screw access to thethreaded hole of said post.

1. An angle cap comprising a generally circular insulating housing,power contacts having a wire clamp end and a power blade end, said wireclamp ends being supported in said housing and said blades extendingthrough a face thereof, a cover enclosing portions of said housing otherthan the face thereof through which the blades extend, a side opening insaid cover and a visor shaped upper clamp over said opening on saidhousing, a closure covering said side opening including a side wallsection and an outwardly extending lower clamp member, a post formedintegrally with and rising from the rear surface of said insulatinghousing, said post having laterally extending external splines along thelength thereof and radially extending ribs at the base thereof andhaving an internal threaded screw hole, a collar formed integrally withand depending centrally from the internal surface of the cover, saidcollar having internal longitudinally extending splines along theinternal surface thereof and radially extending ribs at the lower endthereof, conforming to the ribs and splines of said post, said coverhaving a central screw opening providing screw access to the threadedhole of said post.